Frigidaire upright sealing on close issues?


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Old 03-17-21, 03:38 PM
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Frigidaire upright sealing on close issues?

Couple weeks ago there seemed to be some issue with the door closing right. I noticed that the door was real easy to open, like it had been left or stuck open for some reason. It's got the display at eye level where you set various things and displays errors and temps. I cleared the error, found nothing in the freezer warm, everything was still frozen, but still the door didn't seem right. Used to be when closing the door I'd hear a swoosh like a vacuum in the freezer and then if you tried to open the door it was really hard. Now it seems like I can just pull the door and it opens easy. I don't hear that whoosh any more and after closing it's still easy to open. There was water? in the bottom and it looked like the bottom basket was holding the door open, so I heated off the ice that may be in the way of the door and now at least the door looks to seal, but still it doesn't feel tight like it used to. I removed the bottom basket so it wouldn't get in the way, but I really need to defrost that water out of the bottom.
Any ideas why the thing is not doing that vacuum seal like it used to? Is there a switch or a fan that may have quit?
It freezes just fine and after I cleaned up some of that frozen water, the temp went up to 25F but cooled right down in about 10-15 minutes to 0F. But the door just does not feel right, the gasket looks fine, everything is clean around the gasket.
 
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Old 03-17-21, 04:51 PM
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Fridge/freezer....... just freezer ?
A model number would be helpful.
 
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Old 03-17-21, 05:17 PM
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Upright freezer only. Model LFH17F7HW. I just checked it and the temp is OK at 0 and the door seems more secure, but it still does not 'whoosh' when closing like before. I could feel it suck the door closed, that's what it doesn't seem to do now and I'm concerned about.

The stuff in the freezer is frozen but I need to get all that stuff out and defrost it. That may help.
 
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Old 03-18-21, 10:47 AM
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Yesterday I took a heat gun and cleaned the ice from around the door bottom and removed the bottom tray which seemed to be stuck in the ice at the bottom of the freezer. It seems to close right today and it makes that noise and is very hard to open with second try. So I took all the stuff out, put it all in the 2 refrrigerator freezers and a large cooler, put a fan on it with door open and freezer unplugged. I'll clean up all that ice in the bottom as well as the rest, this thing has been on since 2010.

I think the bottom tray was stuck in the ice holding the door a tiny bit open at the bottom.
 
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Old 03-19-21, 08:54 AM
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this thing has been on since 2010.
That's really good if this is the first cleaning/defrosting.
It all depends on how much the door is opened.

I had almost the same exact freezer. I had to clean and defrost every two years.... sometimes sooner if the door hadn't been closed properly. I'd clean mine in the winter. Pack the stuff in coolers and put outside.

A non self defrosting freezer will keep frozen food fresher and longer than a self defrosting freezer.
 
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Old 03-19-21, 09:32 AM
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It didn't take too long to melt and clean up with the fan blowing in it. There is a drain in the back bottom which I discovered had a frozen ice plug in it. I got that out, reinstalled the 'filter' which is just a soft plastic piece with holes in it that presses into the hole. There was a fair amount of water in the bottom. Plugged in after cleanup and got everything back in when the temps got to about 25F and it didn't take long for it to get to 0. It seems to be operating normally now. The door gets sucked closed. I think it's a frost free, but it's very difficult to find info on this model, other than parts. The manuals are generic to everything.

Instructions say to pull the plug on the drain, but this one has the drain going into a small container which is attached to the compressor. I guess the theory is the compressor heat will evaporate the 'frost' water. I've never seen the temps on the freezer change from 0 unless the power goes off and I have a generator so it's rarely off for more than maybe 20 minutes. Nothing in the instructions about the drain like this one. I had to tip the thing back to see under it and pull off the bottom panel at the front.

I'll have to keep an eye on if there's frozen water in the bottom of the thing but I think it's OK now, the door probably got blocked open somehow from the lower tray not being pushed all the way back.
 
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Old 03-19-21, 09:35 AM
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I wasn't able to locate your model number but it sounds like you don't have a self defrosting freezer.
That drain in the bottom is only used during cleaning.
 
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Old 03-19-21, 02:28 PM
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Typed in the model incorrectly it's actually LFFH17F7HWD. I can find lots of parts for it, but no direct info on what the features are. It does have the display on the top front of the door with 3 or 4 button selections on it, horizontally.
 
 

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